GMC girl

Hi does anyone have any information on the rules & regulations in relation to keeping goats & chickens? Is there much paperwork or do people just have them?

We were in Moson last week & lots of people seem to have chickens.

My husband hopes to keep both once we get somewhere .

wolfi

Yoi'll have to ask your Mayor's office - it depends on local rules.

Pigs are forbidden (because of the smell ...) almost everywhere.

In Hévíz even chicken are forbidden (because of the rooster's noise?) while here in the villages they're allowed of course.

Goats I haven't seen here but there are some in the neighbouring village. Our masseur has five females there and now every one of them has four little ones!

Peter_in_Hungary

Ask at the local council - there was a change in the government regs a few years back that made councils ease up on what they could ban, i.e. councils had to allow traditional backyard animal keeping unless there was a special reason to ban.

Chickens should not be a problem - you don't need a cockerel unless you want to incubate the eggs.

IMO a billy goat smells worse that a pig and pigs should not smell if it/they are kept properly. Billy goats, in my experience, always smell and that smell hangs around for ages !!

Razorbite101

Maybe I can ask my neighbours, they, I can confirm with 100% accuracy,keep a cockerel just metres from our bedroom window

fidobsa

My house came with a pigsty but I don't know how recently it was used. There is also an oil drum that was converted to a rabbit hutch!

GMC girl

Thank's everyone, we were just thinking of a few hens for eggs & himself was pondering goats, only females. I had a billy next-door to me in Ireland & it was a nasty fella.

Peter_in_Hungary

The problem with animals that need milking (I presume that is why you want to keep goats) is that it is a tremendous tie. It is easy to get someone to put a bit of feed in, or have feeders and drinkers that will last several days but it is very difficult to get someone to come in and do the milking twice a day - and some animals don't like strangers doing the milking.
Milking - been there, done that - which is why we keep beef cattle extensively kept on pasture with automatic watering!

GMC girl

Peter that is a very valid point to which I had really not given much consideration. We do want to explore quite a bit & suppose we will have to come back here once a year too for a visit. Will mention this to John later after work .

wolfi

Another problem with hens that we've been told about:

Here in the village most chicken and hens have to be put in over night - because of the foxes roaming the country!
The foxes come into the center of the village even - so if you have no dog in your yard there's a big risk.

fidobsa

I think that has been a worldwide problem ever since humans started keeping hens. I was up just after 6 yesterday morning and one of next doors hens was already strutting around my patio. I don't know if it had already been let out or had been out all night. I did find a pile of feathers in my garden and one of the hens had a bald wing but that was more likely caused by a cat. I don't think many hens can get away from a fox.

Peter_in_Hungary

Our poultry is kept in an enclosure with wire netting over the top and the sides dug into the ground by 50cm. since building this we have not lost any poultry due to predation. Prior to that we lost chicken and ducks due to foxes, pine martins and eagles. Oh and we now have yellow jackals in the area (only one or two) so they are another potential problem, but then we live on a farm outside the village bordering a forest. And the north of Hungary now has wolves coming back into the forests from Slovakia, but so far theses are not an issue for people

wolfi

Peter, that's a lot of effort!

Here some people put their hens in a little house over night - but then sometimes we pass the house during the day and the hens are still inside!
Seems that they got up lare maybe and had no time to open the door ...

A dog is probably the easiest solution.

PS:

Thenumber of houses where you see hensis getting smaller evry year - though their eggs and their meat are really good, we always try to buy this kind of things from our neighbours, as well as vegetables.
Last summer we saw a yellow jackal (arány sakál) in the vineyards, but only once. In the direction of the Balaton you can see deer and some times even wild boars, but not too often. They usually come out at night and have a feast in the cornfields ...

PPS:
Last summer my wife drank a lot of carrot juice, good for the eyes. We bought the organic carrots at the market and I put them in a juicer which leaves a kind of dry stuff which I brought to our neighbour's hens.
You should have seen and heard the rooster and his "girls" when I threw this delicacy over the fence - they really enjoyed that!